This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Saturday: Under
ideal sky conditions, the planet Uranus is just on the edge of being a naked
eye planet. For the next few nights, its proximity to Mars in the night sky
makes it an inviting binocular target. At 7 p.m., Mars is two and a half fists held
upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon. Get Mars in the center of
your binocular field of view. Uranus is the brightest object to the upper left
of Mars. Over the next few nights, look for Mars to pass by Uranus in the sky.
This is evidence that Mars is much closer to Earth than Uranus is. Venus is the
bright point of light to the lower right of Mars.

Sunday:
Tonight is a great night to look for the Big Dipper. Tomorrow will be a great
night to look for the Big Dipper. In fact, every night for many centuries will
be great nights to look for the Big Dipper. But the Big Dipper’s shape slowly
changes over many, many, many, many centuries. (Have I reached my word count
yet?) Tens of thousands of years ago, it didn’t look like a dipper and tens of
thousands of years from now, it will no longer look like a dipper. For a short
video simulation of the changing Big Dipper, go to http://goo.gl/df1yV.
For a look at the current Dipper, face northeast at 8 p.m. The lowest star,
Alkaid, is two and a half fists above the horizon.

Monday: Avast ye matey. Swab the poop deck. Pirates love astronomy. In fact,
the term “poop” in poop deck comes from the French word for stern (poupe) which
comes for the Latin word Puppis. Puppis is a constellation that represents the
raised stern deck of Argo Navis, the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in
Greek mythology. Argo Nevis was an ancient constellation that is now divided
between the constellations Puppis, Vela and Carina. The top of Puppis is about
a fist and a half to the left of the bright star Sirius low in the southern sky
at 9 p.m. Zeta Puppis, the hottest, and thus the bluest, naked eye star in the
sky at 40,000 degrees Celsius is near the uppermost point in Puppis.

Tuesday: On
Saturday you found Mars in the sky. Tonight go learn about Mars. The CWU
Astronomy Club will be giving a presentation about Marsat 8:00 p.m. in the new planetarium.
The planetarium is in Science Phase II, room 101, found at H-10 on the campus
map: http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map.

Wednesday:
In this busy world, it is important to know what time it is. We have many
devises that give us the time. A phone. A computer. A watch. But who has time
to build a phone, computer or even a watch. Not you. But everyone has enough
time to build a simple Sun Clock. All you need is a pencil, a compass and a
print out of the clock template. Go to https://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/sunclock.html
for more information.

Thursday: Jupiter is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 11
p.m.

Friday: Saturn
is two fists above the south-southeast horizon at 6 a.m. If you are not a night
owl and missed Jupiter in the late night sky, you can now find it at two fists
above the southwest horizon.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Saturday: “Happy
Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Pluto. Happy
Birthday to you.” On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, at that
time classified as the ninth planet. However, as astronomers started
discovering a lot of similar objects in that part of the solar system, they
realized that had a classification crisis on their hands. Should everything in
this region of the solar system be named a planet? Eventually the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and all future Pluto-like objects
as dwarf planets.

Sunday: Clyde
Tombaugh discovered the first planet 9. Will you discover the new Planet 9? You
and thousands of others will have the opportunity to comb through images of the
sky from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). You’ll view short
“flipbook” movies of the same patch of sky on different nights. Any point of
light that moves could be Planet 9 or another undiscovered Solar System object.
Read about how you can join the search for Planet 9 at https://goo.gl/D4PkCD.

Monday: Orion
stands tall in the southern sky. At 7:30 p.m., the middle of Orion’s belt is
four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south. And talk about
belt tightening! Alnilam, the middle star in the belt, is losing mass at a rate
of about 100 thousand trillion tons a day. That’s a 1 followed by 17 zeros tons
per day.

Tuesday: Venus
is two fists above the west horizon at 7 p.m. It is the brightest point of
light in the sky.

Wednesday: Jupiter is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m.
By 6 a.m., Jupiter has moved into the southwest sky and Saturn is one and a half
fists above the south-southeast horizon.

Thursday: The
Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry
Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a
Portal to the Universe. This portal is not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but is
on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/. It is
a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts. A recent story
highlights how planet hunters like you and Clyde Tombaugh study the early Earth
to learn more about the possibilities for life on other planets. The Earth’s
atmosphere of the Archean Eon, which lasted from 2.5 to 4 billion years ago,
was a hazy mix of methane, ammonia and other organic materials. This haze had
the doubly positive effect of seeding the Earth-with the building blocks of
life and protecting the Earth from the harmful effects of DNA-damaging
ultraviolet light. Astronomers can look for signs of this haze in the
atmospheres of Earth-sized planets orbiting Sun-like stars. For more
information about this, go to https://goo.gl/n3GCGl.

Friday: Under
ideal sky conditions, the planet Uranus is just on the edge of being a naked
eye planet. For the next few nights, its proximity to Mars in the night sky
makes it an inviting binocular target. At 7 p.m., Mars is two and a half fists
above the west horizon. Get Mars in the center of your binocular field of view.
Uranus is the brightest object to the upper left of Mars. Over the next few
nights, look for Mars to move towards and then pass by Uranus in the sky. This
is evidence that Mars is much closer to Earth than Uranus is.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Saturday: “Oooo,
they’re little runaways. Orion’s stars moved fast. Tried to make a getaway.
Ooo-oo, they’re little runaways,” sang Bon Jovi in his astronomical hit
“Runaway.At least that’s what I
hear when I listen to the song. After all, it fits the recently calculated
trajectory of AE Aurigae, Mu Columbae, and 53 Arietis. Extrapolating the actual
motion of these three stars back in time, they were all in the location of the
star-forming region called the Orion Nebula a few million years ago. What
kicked these stars out? Not paying rent? Excessive partying? No, it was simply
gravitation interactions with near-by stars. Find out more about the eviction
at http://goo.gl/UeLwKQ.
Orion is about four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8
p.m.

Sunday: Venus
is about two fists above the west-southwest horizon at 7 p.m. Mars is less than
a fist to the upper left of Venus.

Monday: Winter
is a good time to see the thick band of the Milky Way galaxy. It arches high in
the high in the early evening starting in the southeast by Sirius, the
brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from Sirius through the
"horns" of Taurus high overhead, it drops down toward M-shaped
Cassiopeia in the north and the tail of Cygnus, the swan, in the northwest.

Tuesday: According
to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next
to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was about to devour her in order to punish
her family. It seemed that all was lost. But, along came the great warrior
Perseus, fresh off his defeat of the evil Gorgon, Medusa. The only similarity
between Andromeda and Medusa was that Andromeda caused people to stand still
and stare at her beauty while Medusa turned people to stone because of her
ugliness. (And, you thought you looked bad in the morning.) Even though
Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer of Medusa was probably
enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances, Andromeda’s impending
death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword
into the sea monsters neck and killed it. In a little known addendum to the
story, Perseus carved “Percy (heart symbol) Andi” in the rock, thus originating
the use of the heart symbol as a substitute for the word “love”.

You can find
these lovers in the sky this Valentine’s Day. Just remember it is rude to stare
– and you never know when you might turn to stone. First, find the Great Square
of Pegasus at 7 p.m. between one and a half and three and a half fists above
the west horizon. The lowest star in Andromeda is the top star in the square.
This represents Andromeda’s head. Perseus is at her feet, nearly straight
overhead. Mirphak, the brightest star in Perseus, is about eight fists above
the west horizon. Perseus’ body is represented by the line of stars to the left
and right of Mirphak.

Wednesday: Jupiter is less than one fist above the east-southeast horizon at
11 p.m. The gibbious Moon has just crept up from the horizon to spy on it.

Thursday: You think wintertime weather is bad in Ellensburg. Astronomers
have discovered storms and earth-sized clouds on a brown dwarf. These are cool,
small stars that are not massive enough to fuse hydrogen atoms and fuse
hydrogen. In fact, they are more similar to gas giant planets such as Jupiter
that to the Sun. In this context, the discovery of storms similar to the giant
Red Spot on Jupiter makes sense. For more information, go to http://goo.gl/jQS3k.

Friday: This
President’s Day weekend, let’s remember Abraham Lincoln: 16th
president, country lawyer, man on the penny, vampire hunter, and astronomer.
Vampire hunter? No. Astronomer? Well, maybe not an astronomer, but someone who
used observational evidence from the sky to solve a problem. In 1858, Lincoln
defended Duff Armstrong, a family friend who was accused of murder. The
prosecution thought they had a strong case because their primary witnesses
claimed to have observed the killing by the light of the nearly full moon.
Let’s listen in on the trial courtesy of the 1939 film, Young Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln:
How’d you see so well?

Witness: I
told you it was Moon bright, Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln:
Moon bright.

Witness:
Yes.

(Dramatic
pause as Lincoln reaches for something)

Lincoln:
Look at this. Go on, look at it. It’s the Farmer’s Almanack (sic). You
see what it says about the Moon. That the Moon… set at 10: 21, 40 minutes
before the killing took place. So you see it couldn’t have been Moon bright,
could it?

Lincoln used
the known information about Moon rising and setting times for August 29, 1858
as evidence in a trial. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic astronomy.
You may confirm Lincoln’s findings on the Moon set time by going to http://goo.gl/PsCmff,
the US Naval Observatory website, and filling out Form A. For more information
about Lincoln’s “almanac trial”, go to http://goo.gl/r83q4X.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Saturday: Are
you going to watch the super bowl tomorrow night? Is the bowl really that
super? After all, half the night the bowl is tipped upside down, spilling out
all of its contents. But don’t just focus on the functionality of the bowl.
Think about how it inspires people all across the world to look at the night
sky. In Mongolia, participants in the super bowl are known as gods. An Arabian
story says the super bowl is a coffin. I encourage you go outside tomorrow night
at about 8 p.m., after whatever unimportant thing you have been doing since
3:30 p.m. Look low in the north-northwest sky and watch the super bowl, also
known as the Big Dipper, balancing on the end of its handle, proudly displaying
its large bowl.

Sunday:
Don’t waste time watching the big game. Effectively use time learning about
your surroundings. The universe contains everything from gigantic galaxy
clusters to tiny parts of atoms so it is difficult to visualize all of it on
the same scale. Cary and Michael Huang have created an interactive scale model
of the universe which allows you to “slide” from a vantage point outside the
known universe down to the smallest things ever theorized. To take this trip,
go to http://htwins.net/scale2/.

Monday: Venus
is three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwest horizon at
6 p.m. Mars is less than a fist to the upper left of Venus.

Tuesday: Are
you interested in participating in astronomy research? You don’t need to go
back to school. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars getting a fake
degree from an online university. The scientists working on the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter would like your input on which objects they should target for close-up
pictures. While you may think the scientists are just trying to build interest
in their project by having people look at pretty pictures, there is a real
scientific benefit to having many eyes searching for interesting targets. There
aren’t enough scientists to carefully inspect all of the low power images. And
surprisingly, computers are not nearly as effective as people in making nuanced
judgments of images. So, go to http://www.uahirise.org/ and click on the HiWish
button. You’ll be on your way to suggesting close-up targets for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter.

Wednesday: Winter is a good time to see the thick band of the Milky Way
galaxy. It arches high in the high in the early evening starting in the
southeast by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from Sirius
through the "horns" of Taurus high overhead, it drops down toward
M-shaped Cassiopeia in the north and the tail of Cygnus, the swan, in the
northwest.

Thursday: At 6:30 a.m., Jupiter is two and a half fists above the southwest
horizon and Saturn is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon.

Friday: Currently,
the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius in the constellation Canis Major.
It’s two and a half fists above the south horizon at 10 p.m. One fist below
Sirius is the blue giant star Adhara. Currently it is less than one tenth the
brightness of Sirius as seen from Earth. But 4.7 million years ago, Adhara was
a lot closer to Earth and shined ten times brighter than Sirius.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.